Republican
Guinean of Bissau
The
capital:
Bissau
The
inhabitants enumerated:
1,345,479 breath of air (estimate of July 2002)
The
language:
The Portuguese (the official language). Majority of the people speaks/[krywlw]/.
The
sweat: [baalaanty],
my beans, [maansynkaa], [maandyaakw],
[bybys]
The
climate:
Tropical
Regime
of the governing:
The republican
The
economy
-
the currency:
[sy] ['iyf]
['iyh] Frank
-
[aalmwaaryd]:
Collected of the foods - cedar, plants tongue of the load, atom. Collected
issued - almond, peanut, cotton.
The
religion:
Traditional beliefs (54%), the Islam (38%), Christ (8%)
History
The Portuguese Nuņo Tristão was the first European to site the coast of Guinea-Bissau in 1446. Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde islands became a single administrative area under Portuguese control in 1834. They were separated in 1879 and the area now called Guinea-Bissau became Portuguese Guinea. The struggle for independence started in the early 1960's and in 1973 an own government and parliament were elected. Full independence was gained on 10 September 1974, following the overthrow of the government in Portugal. In November 1980, a military coup brought Joao Bernardo Vieira to power. The office of prime-minister was abolished in 1984 and Vieira was given absolute power.
In 1994, 20 years after independence from Portugal, the country's first multiparty legislative and presidential elections were held. An army uprising that triggered a bloody civil war in 1998, created hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. The president was ousted by a military junta in May 1999. An interim government turned over power in February 2000 when opposition leader Koumba YALLA took office following two rounds of transparent presidential elections. Guinea-Bissau's transition back to democracy will be complicated by a crippled economy devastated by civil war and the military's predilection for governmental meddling.